Ruby Princess Drops Kauai Call After Hurricane Lowell Damage
The revised plan gives Ruby Princess about 39 hours in Honolulu, with Kauai shore excursions automatically canceled and refunded.
Princess Cruises has removed Nawiliwili from Ruby Princess’ 16-night Hawaiian Islands voyage departing San Francisco on Sept. 17, 2026, after Hurricane Lowell caused extensive damage and power outages on Kauai. The ship will proceed directly to Honolulu for an overnight stay, while all subsequent port calls remain unchanged.
Nawiliwili was scheduled to be the voyage’s first stop. Lowell was the first hurricane to directly affect Kauai since 1992, disrupting power to more than 91% of the island’s utility cooperative accounts.
Honolulu call expanded to 39 hours
Princess notified booked guests of the cancellation before departure. “Instead, the call to Honolulu, Hawaii has been extended to an overnight call,” the company said in its passenger notice.
Ruby Princess had been scheduled to visit Nawiliwili from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 22, followed by a Honolulu arrival at 7 a.m. the next day. Under the revised plan, the ship will arrive in Honolulu at approximately 8 a.m. on Sept. 22 and retain its scheduled 11 p.m. departure on Sept. 23, providing about 39 hours in port.
Princess will automatically cancel its Kauai shore excursions and issue refunds to passengers’ original forms of payment.
After Honolulu, the 113,561-GT Ruby Princess is scheduled to call at Kona from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sept. 24 and Kahului from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 25. Following five sea days, it will visit Ensenada from noon to 5 p.m. on Oct. 1 before returning to San Francisco on Oct. 3.
The Crown-class ship was built in 2008, refurbished in 2023 and has 3,080 lower berths.
Kauai outages continued after the storm
Lowell peaked at Category 5 before weakening to Category 2 as it passed the western Hawaiian islands during the night of Sept. 7 and the morning of Sept. 8. A KIUC outage map showed that more than 3,100 customers remained without power as of Sept. 16. The storm damaged hundreds of structures and roads across Kauai.
Lowell is the second storm to disrupt Hawaii cruise operations during the 2026 eastern Pacific hurricane season. Pride of America and Norwegian Spirit canceled calls and changed itineraries in August because of Hurricane Lala, while the Port of Honolulu was closed.
The official eastern Pacific hurricane season continues through Nov. 30.
